Tiff over not wearing face mask leads to death of 19-year-old girl

Guntur: A tiff over wearing face mask has claimed the life of a 19-year-old girl at Rentachintala in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh.

Though the incident took place a few days ago, the girl died on Saturday night while undergoing treatment in a hospital.

The victim has been identified as Karnati Fatima. The police said that Fatima’s father, Karnati Yalamandala, was found moving without wearing a face mask by four youngsters in their neighbourhood. The four youth entered into an argument with Yalamandala and warned him to wear a face mask.

A few days later, the four youngsters were spotted without facemasks in a market by Yalamandala’s relatives and this led to a heated argument which spiralled into a clash between the two sides on July 3.

When the four youngsters attacked Yalamandala with sticks and rods, his daughter tried to save her father.

As she sustained head injuries, she was shifted to the Government General Hospital in Guntur, where he died on Saturday.

Based on a complaint, the Guntur police registered cases against the four youth — Srinu, Venkatesh, Samba and Mallikarjuna, under Section 302 of IPC (punishment for murder). The police launched a manhunt for the four youngsters.

It may be recalled that in a similar incident, Nellore police arrested a government officer working with the tourism department on the charges of brutally assaulting a differently-abled woman in his office after she advised him to wear a face mask recently.